National History Day Competition in Orono

Learning about local history is not only educational for some Maine students, but it also gives them an opportunity to compete.

Saturday, student competitors gathered in Orono for a National History Day competition. National History Day is part of a year long program designed to help engage students and help them discover social studies.

Students can create a movie, exhibit or live performance for the competition.

“Lots of great stories from here. In fact there are some topics that I didn’t know about that I learned today that are in Maine local history. It’s all about getting engaged with your local history and that can happen as a classroom together, it could happen as a teacher or a student but really feeling connected to where you live and why it matters,” said Kim Fortney, Deputy Dir. National History Day.

The top two winners in each category will advance to the national conference in June at the University of Maryland.